Monday, December 02, 2013

On the sights we'll see!

I'm pre-empting this month's My Favorite Scene for the first of a series of posts on our travels through the months of October and November because wouldn't you rather see photos of exotic and interesting places than listen to me babble? I know I would.

After being chair of his department for an eternity 6 years, hubby is on a mental-health leave this semester to find his sanity. What better way to search for it than to go across the continent and overseas?

So, we packed our bags and hit the road to Canada, where sanity sometimes hides (unless you're in Toronto, apparently).

One of our first stop was at the University of Wisconsin's Arboretum. Son1 has (as you may recall) an obsession in trees these days and we were not disappointed by the variety we found here.
We were going to stop at some National Parks on our cross-country drive, but due to the government shut-down, none of the parks were open, so we opted to head to Canada sooner than we'd originally planned.

We went into Manitoba from North Dakota (where we had one of the best Indian dinners at a place we happened to be lucky enough to stumble upon called India Palace).

In Saskatchewan, we went to Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park. It was a cold day but oh so beautiful:
Being forced to enter Canada earlier meant I was finally able to talk the family into visiting the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Alberta. Look at this…isn't it worth going out of your way for?
It never fails to take my breath away when the Rockies first loom into sight:
Back in 1989, when hubby and I got married and drove across Canada to Delaware where he lived at the time, we stopped by the Columbia Ice Field. The Athabasca Glacier has receded a lot since that time, but wow, is it ever still impressive (and ominous that day with the low, dark clouds) :
We had a lovely dinner when we stayed overnight in Jasper, Alberta. This was hubby's salmon dish. Isn't it gorgeous?
We arrived in Vancouver with a few days to spare before we headed off to China with my father and sister. We went to Shanghai, Beijing, Xi'an, and Hong Kong…I'll be posting one post for each of those destinations. As a bonus, I'll have a hilarious botched English signs post from various parts of China. Stay tuned!

Have you ever been to western Canada? The Rockies? Share your memories with me!

I'm just going to throw in a gratuitous Rockies photo here...

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams